Brent Phillips is Associate Professor of Trombone at Baylor University. Prior to his position at Baylor, Mr. Phillips was assistant principal trombone of “The President’s Own” US Marine Band in Washington DC and is currently principal trombone of the Abilene Philharmonic and the Waco Symphony Orchestra in Waco TX. He was the principal trombone of the Harrisburg Symphony Orchestra for 15 seasons while concurrently performing in the Marine Band.

Mr. Phillips has soloed with the “President’s Own” on thirty separate occasions and has been a featured soloist with the Harrisburg Symphony on five occasions. He continues to travel nationally and internationally as a featured soloist with orchestras.

In addition to performing as a soloist with the Marine Band, he has been invited to perform as a soloist at the 2005 and 2007 Eastern Trombone Workshop in Washington DC, the 2013 International Trombone Festival in Columbus GA and has given recitals in Ostend Belgium, Fasano Italy, Panama City Panama and throughout the US in many of our nations prestigious universities and conservatories. Mr. Phillips recently performed a recital and was an invited clinician in August of 2014 at “Trombonanza!” - a weeklong internationally renowned trombone festival and workshop in Santa Fe Argentina.

As trombonist with the “President’s Own”, Mr. Phillips has gained extensive experience as a soloist. In the fall of 2000, Mr. Phillips was the soloist on the Marine Band’s fifty-two day national concert tour and has soloed numerous times with the Band at Wolf Trap Farm Park, Kennedy Center, and the National Mall. Mr. Phillips gave the world premiere of “Tarkus” by Scott McAllister, for trombone and orchestra with the Harrisburg Symphony Orchestra in May of 2007 and was an invited soloist at the prestigious Eastern Trombone Workshop performing “Tarkus” with the US Army Band in 2008. Mr. Phillips premiered “Tarkus” in Brussels and Ostend Belgium with the Belgium Radio Orchestra in 2009. The work received rave reviews and was featured in a recent New York Times article on trombone soloists and commissions along with works by Scott McAllister, Christian Lindberg, Melinda Wagner and Christopher Rouse.

Mr. Phillips performs regularly with the Dallas Symphony and has toured with the DSO to the Netherlands, Germany and Vienna in 2012 and performed with the DSO in the Vail Valley Music Festival. He also performs regularly with the Houston Symphony and has recent performances with the Buffalo Philharmonic and the Houston Grand Opera and Ballet. Most recently, Mr. Phillips performed with the Houston Grand Opera on bass trumpet in the 2015 production of Wagner’s Die Valkure. Additionally he as performed with the San Antonio Symphony, Richmond Symphony, Delaware Symphony, Maryland Symphony, Alexandria Symphony, Annapolis Symphony, Fairfax Symphony and the Washington Symphonic Brass.

Mr Phillips has released two solo CDs on the Potenza Music label titled "Stepping Stones for Trombone" Volumes 1 and 2. “Stepping Stones for Trombone” is now available at www.justforbrass.com He has also released and two chamber music CDs on the Albany Records label with Stentorian Consort. “Myths and Legends” features all premiere recordings by Stentorian Consort containing exclusive first recordings by Fisher Tull, Eric Ewazen, Charles Wourinen, Leslie Bassett and others. The Stentorian Consort’s second CD – “Diversions” is a highly acclaimed collaboration with Joseph Alessi (New York Philharmonic) and also features newly commissioned works for the trombone quartet and soloist. He can also be heard performing all of the trombone tracks on the Discovery Channel’s “Shark Week” and the Animal Planet’s “O’Shea’s Big Adventure.”

Mr. Phillips has been a featured artist at the Alessi Seminars in 2005, 2007 and in Italy in 2010 and remains active as a soloist and clinician around the country. Most recently, Mr. Phillips was a semi-finalist for the assistant principal trombone position with the New York Philharmonic. During a relatively short full-time teaching tenure at Baylor, Mr. Phillips’ students have been selected as finalist and winners of national and international solo competitions, quartet competitions and are performing in full time professional orchestras or teaching at major universities.

Mr. Phillips founded the Mountain Light Music Festival in Pagosa Springs Colorado which involves fellowship of professional performers, artists, faculty and students in a high altitude wilderness setting. This festival is the culmination of strenuous physical activity, intensive musical study and pedagogical exploration. This intensive one week music seminar serves as a positive scholarly and creative endeavor with multiple faculty collaborating artistically, spiritually and academically.

Mr. Phillips grew up in Houston Texas and attended Westfield High School under Director of Bands, Philip Geiger. His primary teachers were members of the Houston Symphony and the Houston Grand Opera and included Jim Pedigo, David Waters and David Kirk. He also studied briefly with Alan Barnhill and John McCroskey of the Houston Symphony as well as Per Brevig of the New York Metropolitan Opera and John Kitzman of the Dallas Symphony Orchestra. Mr. Phillips received both his Bachelor of Music and Master of Music degree in trombone performance from the Shepherd School of Music at Rice University.